Losses Never Great Enough
by Triple 'Eh
Summary: While at Pinako and Winry’s house in Resembool, the Elric brothers meet a twin boy and girl looking for an automail technician. The boy seems mostly unfazed by the loss of his limbs, but it’s obvious the girl is filled with nothing but guilt. Sumry inside
1. Prologue

**Summary:** While at Pinako and Winry's house in Resembool, the Elric brothers meet a twin boy and girl looking for an auto-mail technician. The boy seems mostly unfazed by the loss of his leg and arm, but it's obvious the girl is filled with nothing by grief and guilt. Ed comes to find he has much in common with this guilt-stricken girl. Will he be able to help mend her wounds, and maybe heal a few of his own along the way? Or will the trail of pain and loss in both their pasts continue?

**Timeline:** This takes place during the anime episode _House of the Waiting Family_.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of its characters. I only own the Dresdens and any other OC's you might see.

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**Losses Never Great Enough**

By Triple 'Eh'

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**Prologue: Of Auto-Mail and Mistakes**

A knock sounded at the door. The Elric brothers glanced up at the wooden door as Pinako and Winry entered the room. Pinako gripped the door handle and tugged it open.

"Yes?" she asked of the people on the other side. Looking over the small old lady's head, Ed could see the girl and boy standing on the doorstep. They looked about his age. The girl had long brown hair pulled into loose bun; her deep brown eyes had black rings under them, as though she hadn't slept in days, and they were filled with emotions he easily recognized: guilt and pain. Standing beside her was a boy who looked just like her and he deduced that they were twins. His brown hair was long and strands flopped into his eyes, which were weary and troubled. The thing that was most noticeable about the boy were his left arm and right leg, or lack there of, as the case might be. He was standing on his left leg with his right arm wrapped around his sister's shoulder to support himself.

"Hello, ma'am," the boy said politely. "I'm Andrew Dresden, this is my sister Amneris. We're looking for Pinako and Winry Rockbell. We heard you were the best auto-mail technicians in Amestris."

Pinako looked long and hard at the two teens, before stepping back from the door and saying, "Please come in."

Amneris, arm around Andrew's waist, helped him hop inside.

"Here, sit down," Winry said, moving a seat back from the table. Amneris helped her brother to sit down in the chair before sitting down beside him. Pinako took a seat across from Andrew while Winry sat beside her.

"Young man," Pinako began, "What exactly happened to you?"

"Um…" Andrew looked to his sister, but she was staring down at her lap, her hands resting on the tabletop far away from each other, as though she was afraid for them to touch. "Nothing," Andrew finally said. "It was an accident," he added, firmly, staring at the side of his sister's head. She made a funny noise, half way between a scoff and a gasp that petered off into a squeak at the end.

"Amneris," he sighed.

She shook her head, but said nothing. Winry stared at the girl in concern.

"What do you think happened to them?" Al whispered to Ed, who was sitting beside him on the sofa.

"I don't know," Ed said. "But it was something bad and something she feels guilty about."

"How do you know?" Al asked.

Ed's face darkened. "I saw it in her eyes. You can't mask that kind of pain and guilt from someone who's experience it themselves."

"Ed…"

"Don't, Al."

"Well," Pinako said, evidently sensing the tension in the room. "We're going to need to take your measurements. We won't be able to make your auto-mail until we're finished with Edward's, but that shouldn't take long. Do you have somewhere you can stay?"

Again, Amneris made that strange noise and this time, Ed realized that it was a sob.

"No, ma'am," Andrew said. "We lived a few miles away in Exodem, but our house burned down. We don't know anyone here in Resembool."

"Well, you're more than welcome to stay with us. We have enough room. Winry, go fetch some blankets for the spare room."

"Yes, Auntie," Winry said. She stood and made her way around the table. As she passed by Amneris, she placed a consoling hand on the girl's shoulder and smiled at her as she look up, but the comfort just seemed to upset her more and she turned her head violently away, letting out another choking sob. Winry sighed and dropped her hand, shrugging at Ed as she passed him.

"Amneris?" Andrew asked, gently grasping her chin in his hand and raising her face to meet her eyes. "Are you alright?" His voice was laced with brotherly concern and affection.

Amneris's eyes filled with tears as she looked at her brother and Ed saw, once again, the overwhelming pain and guilt in her eyes before she wrenched her head out of Andrew's grasp and hurriedly pushed the chair back from the table, jumping up and gazing down at her brother.

"No," she sobbed. "No, I'm not." And she bolted for the door, knocking the chair over, and ran outside, where it had begun to rain.

"Amneris!" Andrew called, looking and sounding pained that he couldn't go after her.

Ed made a decision. "I'll get her," he said to the brown-haired boy. "Al, stay here," he ordered his brother as he rushed out the door after the crying teenage girl.

She had already made it pretty far and knew he wouldn't catch her. So he just followed her to wherever it was she was going. They ran for miles, Amneris never seeming to tire, for she never slowed down. She kept running. Soon they were out of Resembool and headed toward the neighboring town of Exodem. And Ed realized where she was going as her saw the blacked remains of a small cottage appear on the hillside.

Amneris ran around the back of the burned house and only slowed when she dropped to her knees in front of what looked like five white blocks. Only as he drew nearer did Ed recognize them as tomestones. Five white, marble tombstones, in the pattern of an upside-down V, rested on the green hillside behind the ruins.

As he stood, unnoticed, a hundred feet or so behind Amneris, Ed looked at the engravings on the headstones. He could just make them out from this distance. The one in the very front on the right read:

_**Christine Dresden** _

_Born January 14, 1871_

_Died August 8, 1909_

_Loving Mother and Wife_

And the one beside it:

_**Daniel Dresden** _

_Born February 17, 1869 _

_Died September 7, 1909_

_Beloved Father, Devoted Husband_

Ed noticed that the two, husband and wife most likely, had died within a month of each other. He had a sickening realization about who they must be and his sympathy for the girl in front of him grew tenfold. It would only increase more as he read the three others behind them. In the middle row on the right, the gravestone read:

_**Adam Dresden** _

_Born March 30, 1890 _

_Died December 23, 1914_

_Devoted Husband and Loving Father_

Beside Adam lay:

_**Marseille Porter-Dresden** _

_Born October 24, 1891 _

_Died December 20, 1914_

_Loving Wife and New Mother Taken Before Her Time_

And in the very back, lay the gravestone that caused his stomach to knot and churn even more than the other four. For in the very back, at the point of the triangle, lay:

_**Shelly Dresden** _

_Born December 20, 1914 _

_Died December 23, 1914_

_Beloved Daughter_

Three days old; she had been three days old.

A scraping noise broke Ed out of his thoughts, and he looked down at Amneris. She clutched a stick in her hand and was drawing something on the ground. With a start, he realized it was a transmutation circle. She threw the stick to the side and knelt in front of the circle, still sobbing audibly, tears coursing down her cheeks.

"No!" he called, but the storm, worse now he noticed, drowned him out. He broke into a run, trying to get to her before she did something she'd regret. Even as he ran, he knew he wouldn't make it in time. His eyes widened as she raised her hands above her head to slam them down on the transmutation circle, but she hesitated. Her hands, held high above her head, shook as her body was wracked with sobs. Screaming in frustration, she violently swiped her hand across the dirt, destroying the circle. Ed stopped a few feet behind her and watched as she buried her head in her knees, drawing her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

Slowly, Ed approached the weeping girl and placed his hand gently upon her shoulder. Stopping her rocking, she looked up at him with teary eyes. She took in his prosthetic leg and missing arm and the kindness in his eyes, and must have recognized that he had something in common with her, suffering or guilt perhaps, for she did not throw him off. Slowly and unobtrusively, Ed sat down beside her, mimicking her posture, drawing his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arm around them.

They sat like that, in silence, for what seemed an eternity. Gradually, Amneris's sobs stopped, as did the rain, and she sat there, sopping wet, staring mutely at the ivory-colored stones in front of them.

"Those your parents?" Ed asked quietly when he felt it was safe to do so, nodding toward the first two tombstones.

"Yeah," she responded, voice emotionless. "Yeah, they're my mom and dad."

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Yeah…yeah, so am I," she whispered.

"I know what it's like," he said, a few moments later, "To lose a parent. But human transmutation, isn't the answer." He gestured with his arm to the half erased circle.

"I know," she said, then whispered, in a voice so low he wasn't sure he heard her, "Believe me, I know."

He wasn't certain she did know. So, taking a deep breath, he proceeded to try and explain. "My mother died when I was eleven," he said quietly, staring at the graves in front of him, unable to look at her. She turned her head to look at him; surprised he was telling her this. "Al, my younger brother, and I…we were devastated. Our father had left long before and our mother was all we had. But she got sick and she died. I…I didn't think we could live without her. I was certain we couldn't. So Al and I, we researched. Our father had been a great alchemist and he had a workroom full of books. Some of them were about human transmutation. We gathered the ingredients to make a human body and we thought a drop of each of our blood would suffice as Equivalent Exchange for the soul."

He paused, allowing his shaking voice to smooth over and regained his composure. Then he continued, "It didn't work. The transmutation went wrong. I lost my leg, but Al, he lost his entire body. I sacrificed my arm to bind his soul to a suit of armor. Now, Al is a suit of armor and my leg and arm are auto-mail. We made a mistake, and we're paying for it," Ed said quietly, barely a trace of emotion in his monotonous voice.

"Your mother…?" Amneris whispered.

"The thing we brought back wasn't even human. Just flesh and bone and blood," Ed whispered, turning his head to the side, his eyes tightly shut, remembering, the pain still unbearable even after all this time.

They were silent for a while, Amneris contemplating Ed's words, Ed still remembering all the pain he and Al had been through. Finally, after what seemed hours, Ed said, "We should go back. You're brother is probably worried."

Amneris nodded and the two stood. With one last glance over her should at the tombstones, Amneris followed Ed back down the road toward the Rockbells'. "Goodbye," she whispered, touching her hand to the tree that stood beside what was left of the wooden gate as she passed.

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A/N: Please R&R. Reviews are always welcome!! 


	2. Chapter I

**Summary:** While at Pinako and Winry's house in Resembool, the Elric brothers meet a twin boy and girl looking for an auto-mail technician. The boy seems mostly unfazed by the loss of his leg and arm, but it's obvious the girl is filled with nothing by grief and guilt. Ed comes to find he has much in common with this guilt-stricken girl. Will he be able to help mend her wounds, and maybe heal a few of his own along the way? Or will the trail of pain and loss in both their pasts continue?

**Timeline:** This takes place during the anime episode _House of the Waiting Family_.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of its characters. I only own the Dresdens and any other OC's you might see.

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**Losses Never Great Enough**

By Triple 'Eh'

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Ed and Amneris walked through the Rockbell's door twenty minutes later, still soaking wet. The water from their clothing and skin dripped onto the floor and Amneris had begun shivering ten minutes ago. As soon as Winry saw them, she hurried out of the room, returning seconds later with thick, fluffy towels, which she wrapped around the two teens shoulders. 

"Amneris!" Andrew exclaimed when he saw his sister. He was sitting on the sofa and Pinako was taking his arm and leg measurements. She looked up from what she was doing long enough to scowl at the water on the floor.

"Wipe that up, shorty," she said.

It was a sign of how cold and tired Ed was that he didn't respond to that. Amneris shivered and pulled the towel tighter as she sat down in her chair at the table. Ed took a seat at the end of the table. Winry, after wiping up the water on the floor, sat down across from Amneris.

When Amneris coughed and shivered again, Winry jumped up. "You two should drink some hot tea, so you don't get a cold." She hurried out of the room to fetch the tea, leaving a tense silence in her wake. No one said anything for a while. Occasionally, Andrew would glance at his sister, but she seemed unable to meet his eyes, instead choosing to stare once more at her lap.

In the end, it was Amneris who broke the silence. "Ed?" she asked. For a moment, he was startled that she knew his name, before remembering that Pinako had mentioned him earlier.

"Yeah?" he responded.

"That stuff, that you told me earlier, in the graveyard…" she trailed off. "That all really happened to you?" she whispered.

In answer, Ed merely gestured to Al, who was sitting on the sofa and waved meekly with his one good arm. Amneris nodded. "Right. Why did you tell me that?"

"I wanted you to understand that human transmutation brings nothing but trouble," Ed answered honestly.

Amneris swallowed hard and nodded. "You told me your story, Ed; I think I should tell you ours," she said.

"Amneris–"

"No, Andrew, he should know. He understands, Andy, he understands what we…what _I_…went through…am still going through. What I did. I need someone to understand." She was practically pleading.

"Alright," Andrew relented. "But you don't have to tell him. I can, if you don't want to."

"No, no, I will."

Andrew nodded. Amneris looked at Ed, Al, and Pinako, who had finished the measurements and was now listening intently, in turn and then focused back on Ed. Winry walked back in at that moment, brandishing a tray carrying two cups and a teapot. She placed a cup in front of both Ed and Amneris and poured tea into them. Amneris took time to gather herself under the guise of adding sugar and cream. Ed merely pushed his cup away, he wasn't thirsty and he rarely got sick anyway. Winry quietly sat back down.

Though she had added cream and sugar, Amneris did not touch her tea. She merely gripped the cup between her hands hard enough to turn her knuckles white and pursed her lips. A few moment of silence later, she spoke.

Her voice was weak and wavering, but everyone heard her clearly. "Our father was a State Alchemist in his youth. When Andy and I were ten, he taught us alchemy. We were…we were very competitive, always seeking to outdo one another. We were equally matched, but I wanted to be better. I was trying to transmute glass to sand and then back to glass one day. I had drawn the circle, had the glass, everything should've gone fine. But something went wrong."

_A ten-year-old girl with brown piggy tails sat in the grass. A large oak tree grew in front of where she sat and behind her was a small cottage, her home. She could hear her mother cooking away in the kitchen and could smell the delicious scents wafting from the open window. Glancing over her shoulder, she smiled and waved at the brown haired woman in the kitchen window._

_"Hi, mom!" she called._

_"Hey, sweetie. Be careful, Amneris, honey," her mother called back, smiling, before returning to her cooking._

_Amneris turned back around to face the base of the oak. Picking up a small paintbrush, she dipped it in black pain and began to trace a design in the dirt. A line here, a circle there. Soon, she had a complete transmutation circle drawn. She then picked up a glass bottle and placed it in the center of the circle. Clapping her hands together, she slammed them down on either side of the circle and closed her eyes at the brightness of the light. When she opened them, a pile of sand lay in the center of the circle where the glass had been._

_"Alright!" she exclaimed. She jumped up and began to do a small jig. "Yeah, woo-hoo-ooo, woo-hoo-ooo, I'm goood, oh ye-ah," she sang, before shouting, "I'm…an…alchemist!!" Unnoticed by Amneris, her foot brushed lightly against the circle and a bit of the paint smeared._

_Still cheering, Amneris knelt down in front of the circle again. She clapped her hands together and slammed them down once more on either side of the circle. The circle glowed a brilliant blue, but suddenly the light turned black. Amneris looked around, frightened. Wind whirled around her, whipping her pigtails from side to side._

_"Mom!" she screamed. "Dad! What's happen—ING! Ahhhh!!" She screamed as she was flung backwards from the circle, and flew through the air. She landed violently on her back and her head slammed hard onto the ground. Blackness crept along the outskirts of her vision, but she could still see through her cracked eyelids. The sight that met her was one she would never forget._

_Her mother, standing on the porch, a dishrag in her hand, a scream of fear building in her throat for her injured daughter. The transmutation circle under the tree, glowing ebony, bright and dangerous. A bolt of black energy, hurtling through the air toward the house and slamming into her mother's stomach. Her mother, eyes widened, mouth open in a perfect 'o', giving a small gasp before crumpling to the ground. Her father, coming around the side of the house, shouting and running to his wife's side. Her brother, rushing toward her, terrified for his twin sister._

_And then she lost consciousness._

Amneris closed her eyes and swallow hard. She was clenching her fists so tight, Ed had to admire the strength of the teacup to resist such harsh treatment. Amneris's tongue darted out to moisten her lips before she spoke again. "I…was unconscious for several hours. When I woke up, I wished I had stayed that way."

_She could hear voices, muffled and indecipherable, as she came slowly out of her unnatural sleep. Cracking her eyes, she made out the blurry images of her brothers and father and the local doctor. She groaned as she pushed herself into a sitting position._

_"Amneris!" her twin shouted as he dropped at her side._

_"Andy," she gasped. "What the…what happened?"_

_"You don't remember?" Andrew asked._

_"I…" her eyes widened as her memory of the mornings events returned to her in a rush. "M-mom?" she asked, looked down at her brother, who was kneeling on the floor beside her bed._

_Andrew looked away from his sister, staring at his lap, and mutely shook his head. Amneris gasped, a choking sob as tears began to course down her cheeks. "No," she whispered, "No!…How?"_

_"It was…" Andrew sighed. "It was the transmutation circle. One of the corners was smudged. It caused a backlash."_

_Amneris raised both hands to her trembling mouth. "Oh my god. It's my fault," she whispered, horror-stricken. "I killed her."_

_"No!" Andrew exclaimed firmly. "No, it's not your fault."_

_"Yes it is," she whispered, nodding her head. "Yes it is. I'm to blame," she persisted. She glanced over at her oldest brother and father, taking to the local doctor in low tones. Her brother, Adam, looked up when he felt her gaze, but quickly looked away with a grimace._

_"I'm to blame," she whispered again. "I'm to blame. And they know it, too." Andrew merely sighed and gripped his sister's hand as she sobbed._

"It was my fault she died," Amneris said. "My father and older brother knew it and though they tried to hide it, I knew they blamed me. Andrew was the only one who never blamed me. Even I blamed me.

"We buried her behind the house, in a beautiful casket with a beautiful headstone and a lovely little service. The entire town came, everyone loved her. I didn't go, I wouldn't have survive the accusing stares, knowing that the entire town knew; that they knew I had killed my mother and they blamed me just as my dad and brother did."

No one said anything, too horrified by what Amneris had gone through to speak. Andrew was staring off into space, reliving the memories as his sister talked about them. Ed was dismayed; did each of the graves he'd seen have a tale just as bad to go with them? If so, he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"I went out to her grave after the service, when all the mourners had left. I couldn't stay in the house with my family, feeling as guilty as I did."

_Amneris, clothed in a black dress, brown hair whipping loose around her shoulders in the wind, knelt at the foot of a marble tombstone. On it was engraved the words:_

_**Christine Dresden** _

_Born January 14, 1871 _

_Died August 8, 1909_

_Loving Mother and Wife_

_The warm August sun beat down on her, but though she was clothed in black and the heat must be unbearable, Amneris did not stir. She sat, staring at the headstone, hands clasped in her lap, for the longest time._

_"Mom," she finally whispered, reaching out a hand to trace the words. "I'm so sorry mom, so sorry. I never meant for this to happen. Why did you have to leave mom? I need you, Andy and Adam need you, Dad needs you. Why, mama? Why?"_

_She hung her head, hand dropping from the smooth surface of white marble. She felt a hand clamp on her shoulder and looked up into the face of her twin. Andrew squatted down behind her, hand still on her shoulder and said nothing, allowing his sister her silent mourning._

_"How are we going to survive without her, Andy?" she whispered._

_"I dunno," Andy murmured, more to himself than to her, for she had turned her head back to the tombstone and was again tracing the words as though they were the only things keeping her sane. "I dunno."_

"I was destroyed by my mother's death," Amneris said. Her voice was quiet and void of emotion. "I locked myself in my room. I didn't even come out to eat. I'd have wasted away in that room, and I would have let myself too, if it hadn't been for Andrew. He made me eat, he spent hours a day in that room with me, forcing me to at least have some human interaction, even if it was only just with him.

"I stayed in that room for what seemed like forever, but was in fact only one day short of a month. I left it only to attend my father's funeral. He died of grief not even a month after my mother's passing. I blamed myself for his death as well, because he wouldn't have died if I hadn't killed my mother. I blamed myself, I knew it was my fault, but I felt nothing.

"I was numb inside, completely hollow. I didn't feel grief, o-or or pain, or…or even guilt at my dad's death. I knew it was my fault, but I didn't feel it: that sense of crushing guilt that comes with knowing you're responsible for the death of another human being. I felt nothing. That was why I attended my father's funeral. Numb as I was, the whispering accusations that traveled throughout the crowd of mourners did not affect me.

"After the death of our parents, Andrew and I lived with Adam in our family home. I stopped practicing alchemy and in respect of my fears, Andrew did not do it in front of me, though I knew he never stopped altogether. Having not been there when my alchemy backfired, having not arrived until after it had already happened, he didn't share my fears so he had no reason to stop and I never asked him to. But I feared alchemy.

"Eventually, life got somewhat back to normal for us. About two years after our parent's death, Adam met a girl, you might know her; she was from Resembool. Her name was Marseille Porter."

"Oh, yes," Pinako said. "Lovely girl, very pretty, very kind."

"Yes," Amneris sighed sadly, "Yes she was."

"Anyway, they fell in love and married. Andrew and I decided that, after being such a hassle to Adam for the last couple of years, to take a trip to Central and give the two newlyweds some time alone. While in Central, I became…I found a job that I really liked, one where I could use my alchemy for good. I felt like I was helping people and that felt like redemption for the horrors I'd caused with my alchemy.

"My job in Central kept me there and sometimes sent me other places as well. Andrew, being the wonderful brother he is, stuck with me wherever duty sent me."

That sounded odd to Ed. Wherever duty sent me…he couldn't decide why that sounded familiar. Before he had time to dwell on it too much, Amneris continued.

"Even though we spent much time traveling about and my job was on a very tight schedule…

Ed was certain he heard Andrew mutter something like, "You mean, your job was dictated by a very tight jackass."

Amneris shot him a look, "Be that as it may, we were certain to always drop in on Adam and Marseille when we passed through Exodem. For our fifteenth birthday, I took le…a vacation from work and we went home. The night before our birthday, Marseille and Adam announced that they were going to have a baby. We were all very happy, Andy and I were gonna have a little niece, we couldn't have been more excited. I returned to my work, which had been moved to East City a year or so ago, and Andy, separating from me for the first time in our lives, went to Central City.

"Nine months later, a week ago, I received word in East City that Marcy was about to have her baby. I took le…vacation again and came back out here, and Andrew arrived the day after. On December 20, 1914, Marseille went into labor."

_"Come on, Marcy! Push!" Amneris and Andrew sat outside the cottage on the porch, listening to the grunts and groans and screams of their sister-in-law drown out the encouraging words from their brother and the local doctor._

_Amneris winced in sympathy as an exceptionally loud scream split the night._

_"Ouch," Andrew said. "That didn't sound particularly pleasant."_

_"I'm never having kids," Amneris decided with a shake of her head. "Don't expect any nieces or nephews outta me."_

_Andrew chuckled._

_"AhhhhHHHHHH!!!!!"_

_Andrew stopped chuckling._

_"Good grief, I've never heard a person scream that loud before," Andrew said. "I hope she doesn't damage her throat."_

_"Although, if she did, she couldn't yell at us anymore," Amneris pointed out._

_"I find her yelling comforting, actually," Andrew admitted._

_"What? You find having your ears screamed off comforting?" Amneris said, incredulous._

_"Yeah," Andrew said, sadly, "When she scolds us for doing bad things, she kind of reminds me of mom."_

_Amneris' face hardened and she looked away from her brother, into the storm night. "Yeah, I guess," she said, revealing nothing in the tone of her voice._

_Suddenly, a wailing shriek pierced the night like a knife. Amneris and Andrew grinned at each other and were about to stand up when…_

_"Marcy? Marcy! Marseille! Answer me! Baby, wake up! No, no." ..they heard their brother's voice carry through the door._

_Eyes widening, the twins looked at each other before scrambling to their feet and dashing to the door. Amneris wrenched the wooden door open and the twins stumbled inside. Regaining her balance, Amneris raced up the stairs to her brother and sister-in-law's bedroom, her brother not far behind her._

_She stopped short in the doorway as she took in the scene in the bedroom. Marseille, pale and sweaty, lying in the bed, blood covering the sheets, arm dangling limply off the side of the bed. Adam, kneeling by the bedside, clutching his wife's cold hand in his, tears running down his face, a mantra of 'no, no' quietly pouring from his trembling lips. Dr. Shafer, standing at the far side of the bed, Marseille's other wrist clutched in his hand, index and middle finger pressed to her pulse point. The baby, crying in her bassinet at the foot of the bed, wailing for a mother she'd never get to meet. It was a second sight that would forever be burned into Amneris's retinas._

_"I'm sorry son," Dr. Shafer murmured as Andrew skidded to a halt behind his twin and gasped. "She's gone." Those two words, those two tiny four-letter words, shattered the Dresden twins' lives forever._

"We buried her in back with mom and dad. Marseille had had no family besides us to protest it. Adam was devastated. He locked himself in his room with his daughter Shelly, and refused to come out. While Adam wallowed in grief, I felt none. I loved Marseille, but I felt no grief at her death. Why? Because I was too busy feeling determined. Determined to save my family no matter the costs. Oh if only I knew what that would entail."

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A/N: Please R & R. Review are always welcome. 


	3. Chapter II

**Summary:** While at Pinako and Winry's house in Resembool, the Elric brothers meet a twin boy and girl looking for an auto-mail technician. The boy seems mostly unfazed by the loss of his leg and arm, but it's obvious the girl is filled with nothing by grief and guilt. Ed comes to find he has much in common with this guilt-stricken girl. Will he be able to help mend her wounds, and maybe heal a few of his own along the way? Or will the trail of pain and loss in both their pasts continue?

**Timeline:** This takes place during the anime episode _House of the Waiting Family_.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of its characters. I only own the Dresdens and any other OC's you might see.

* * *

**Losses Never Great Enough**

By Triple 'Eh'

* * *

**Chapter Two: Of Explaining and Remembering Part II**

_"Amneris?" Andrew questioned softly, looking down at his sister. She was seated on the front porch, eyes staring blankly out at the field behind their house and the two tombstones some distance away now joined by a third, much fresher, grave. Her body was hunched, feet sitting a shoulder width apart on the porch step, forearms resting on her thighs, hands lightly clasped together in her lap. Her face was expressionless, a stone mask, impossible to read. Her brother couldn't tell what she was thinking. He needn't have bother trying; she wasn't hiding anything._

_"What do you think will happen to us?" she asked him quietly, eyes still trained on the graves in the distance. She twiddled her thumbs, a nervous habit of hers. _

_"What do you mean?" Andrew asked her. _

_"I mean where do you think we'll go? Will the state take us? Or a relative? There aren't any relatives who will take us," she answered her last question herself._

_"No one will take us. We still have Adam," Andrew told her, wondering where she got the idea they'd be taken from him._

_"I mean after," she said cryptically. _

_"After _what_?" Andrew was becoming slightly exasperated. Why didn't she just say what she was thinking? Why all the smoke and mirrors?_

_"After he dies," she said bluntly, no emotion in her voice. "After he dies like dad did." _

_"D-da…Adam isn't dad," Andrew protested feebly, still in a state of shock at the turn her thoughts had taken. _

_"Doesn't matter," she shook her head, "Doesn't matter if he's not dad. He'll still die like dad did. Grief will overwhelm him like it did dad."_

_"But…but Adam's got a daughter…" _

_"And dad had us!" Amneris shouted, rounding on him,, showing her first emotion since he had come outside: anger. "That didn't stop him from kicking the bucket, did it? Dad was with mom a lot longer than Adam was with Marseille; they lived long happy lives together, knowing one day they'd be separated; and Dad had three kids to look after, instead of just one, and he _still_ died. What makes you think Adam's gonna make it? What makes you think the grief of losing a woman he loved so much but got to spend so little time with won't overwhelm him and kill him?!" _

_Amneris sighed, seeing that her brother was clearly hurt by the truth, and trying to convince himself it wasn't just that: the truth. Shaking her head once, she dropped her eyes to her clasped hands. "It doesn't matter," she reiterated. "It doesn't matter whether he's dad, it doesn't matter whether you want to believe it, it doesn't matter if he has a daughter and two siblings who need him. It's going to happen. If we let it." Her voice took on a hard edge. "But I _won't_." _

_Andrew looked to her, tears pricking his eyes, tears for his brother, tears for his sister-in-law, tears for his little niece, but most of all, tears that his sister refused to let fall. "Sister," he said, voice cracking, but the fifteen year old didn't have time to be ashamed that his emotions were getting the better of him. "What are you going to do?" he asked sounding for the first time in a long while, like the small child she had always pictured her, by two-minutes, younger brother to be. _

_Voice sure and determined, Amneris turned to look Andrew right in the eye. "Brother, I'm going to _bring them back

* * *

_"Water: 105 liters?"_

_"Check."_

_"Carbon: 60 kilograms?"_

_"Check."_

_"Ammonia: 12 liters?"_

_"Check."_

_"Lime: 4.5 kilograms?"_

_"Check."_

_"Phosphorus: 2400 grams?"_

_"Check."_

_"Salt: 750 grams?"_

_"Check."_

_"Saltpeter: 300 grams?"_

_"Check."_

_"Sulfur: 120 grams?"_

_"Yep."_

_"Fluorine: 22.5 grams?" _

_"Uh-huh."_

_"Iron: 15 grams?"_

_"Mmm."_

_"Silicon: 9 grams?"_

_"Uh-huh."_

_"And 15 other elements in small quantities?" _

_"It's all there," Andrew sighed, checking the last box on the paper attached to the clipboard in his hand. _

_"Good," Amneris nodded. "Good."_

_"We're really gonna do this?" Andrew asked._

_"Yes, yes, we are," the girl said._

_"Amneris," her twin sighed. "It's forbidden, taboo, it's supposed to be _impossible_." He stressed the last word, hoping she would change her mind, but knowing that she wouldn't. _

_"'_Nothing _is impossible when you set your mind to it', isn't that what mom always said?" _

_"Yes, but – "_

_"Look," Amneris sighed, "I'll do this with or without you. What's it gonna be, brother?"_

"God, I wish you had said without," Amneris said, turning to face her twin brother, who sat on the sofa across the room, starring at his lap.

"If I had, you'd be dead," he whispered. "I'm glad I didn't."

"But—ugh, never mind." Amneris shook her head. "Naturally, I assume you can guess what happens next?"

_"I'm with you," Andrew said, after a moment's deliberation. _

_Amneris smiled. "Then tomorrow night, we're bringing our family _back

* * *

_Thunder sounded in the distance as rain drenched everything and anyone unlucky enough to be outside at the time. Two figures, huddled under plastic ponchos and dragging large boxes behind them, dashed across the open space from the porch of a small house to a dry area under a tent stretched between two tress. Under the tent, three marble tombstones rose from the soggy earth. _

_"Well," stated Andrew, "If we accidentally break one of the jars, we'll have no shortage on water. Do you think tonight's a good night to be doing this?"_

_"No time like the present," Amneris shouted over the noise as the wind tugged viciously at her hood and the tarp covering them. _

_"It's a freaking monsoon," Andrew complained, beginning to unload the boxes._

_"It's not a monsoon. We're too far inland," Amneris protested as she began to etch a circle on the ground around the graves. _

_"Then it an effing hurricane," Andrew growled. "Either way, the weather doesn't exactly scream 'Resurrect the dead tonight'!" _

_Amneris ignored him. Finishing the last line on the transmutation_ _circle that surrounded each grave, she stood, brushing her hands together. "There," she said. "Let's sort the ingredients into three piles and put it in each of the smaller inner circles at the foot of each grave." _

_The two worked diligently, separating and relocating the various elements into their circles, but Amneris's mind wasn't on the task._

_'Am I really about to do this?' she thought to herself. 'Yes, I am. I have to. I won't lose anymore of my family; I won't survive it. I've got to do this.'_

_Still, the nagging voice in the back of her mind wouldn't quit._

_'But what about the Elric brothers? They tried the same thing we're about to try and look what happen to them. Do I just write that off as a mistake? Something they did wrong that I think I can do right? Do I just ignore the fact that this could possibly, and probably will, backfire and destroy us both?'_

_These were the thoughts running through Amneris's mind as she placed the last gram of sulfur into her sister in laws transmutation circle. With deliberate ease, Amneris pushed those thoughts to the side as her brother called out to her that he was finished. Brushing the dirt off her hands, she walked to stand by her brother's side just outside of the outer transmutation circle._

_"Last but not least," Amneris said, "A drop of our blood." After allowing a drop of their blood to fall in each small circle, the Dresden twins walked back outside the circle's border._

_"Now or never," Amneris whispered, taking her brothers hand._

_The two exchanged a glance before kneeling down, Amneris's left hand still firmly trapped in Andrew's right, and simultaneously slamming their hands down onto the circle. Instantly, the lines of the transmutation circle began to glow, a brilliant yellow gold color. Blue bolts of lightning dropped from the sky to strike the ground within the circle, barely missing the two teenagers knelt outside its perimeters._

_A funnel of quickly spinning wind formed inside the circle, whipping Amneris's long locks back from her face. She watched in excitement as the three smaller circles began to glow and bolts of pure energy buzzed in the air._

_But just as she was being to think everything would work out, and they'd have their family back, everything changed. The brilliant yellow glow turned a sinister purple black and crimson energy shot through the small, enclosed space._

_"Amneris!" Andrew shouted. "What's…what's going on?" Of course it would make sense that he would be the one turning to her for answers, instead of the other way around. She always had the answers to his questions. And in the back of her mind, she knew she had the answer to this one as well._

_"I don't know!" she shouted back. She had an idea, but she prayed to god she was wrong. If there was a god, he wasn't listening to her that night._

_A burst of bright light blinded her temporarily, and she distantly registered Andrew's hand slipping from hers. Her mind was filled with thought of how this could happen. She had thought she had everything figured out, thought it would work. She'd been so wrapped up in getting her family back however she could, that she hadn't consider the repercussions if they failed._

_"Amneris!" a pain-filled voice that she partially recognized as her brother's broke through her thoughts. She groped for him in the blinding sea of light and wind and dust, and she felt her hand touch flesh. She opened her eyes to see if her brother was alright, and was met with a pair of shocking, brightly glowing purple eyes. She screamed._

_And then there was nothing but agony and she was lost to the pain._

"I don't know what happened after that," Amneris said. "I lost consciousness right about then. The next thing I re—"

"Everything went wrong from the moment the world turned purple," Andrew muttered from his position on the couch. "I screamed to my sister, asking her what was happening. She was always the better alchemist and she had been reading for three days straight, every alchemy book she could get her hands on. I thought she would know. Then there was a flash of bright light, and I couldn't see her anymore. That was when it happened."

_A bright light flashed, and suddenly Andrew couldn't see his sister right beside him anymore. Everything was spinning and whirling and in the chaos, his sister's hand slipped away from his. A piercing pain suddenly shot through his left arm and he let out a small scream, which was instantly wiped away by the wind. He looked down to find that he could no long see his arm from the wrist down. And the rest of his arm was slowly disintegrating, breaking apart._

_"Amneris!" he screamed for his sister, groping around for her with his good arm. However, what he found was not his sister. He found himself staring into a pair of cold and accusing purple eyes. Distantly, he heard his sister scream, loud and shrill, before the blinding agony in his arm returned and the world went black._

_When he came to god only knows how long later, it was over. The transmutation circle was lifeless and the air was still. Too still. With his chest filled with a sense of dread, Andrew glanced frantically around for his sister. Never mind the fact that his arm was nonexistent and the mangled stump remaining was still bleeding or that he felt nauseous and lightheaded. Never mind all that because he could smell blood and feel pain that wasn't his own and he couldn't locate his sister._

_As he wiped around, searching in all directions from his spot crumbled on the ground, he finally found what he was searching for. She was collapsed in a heap on the other side of the tent, and a much too large pool of blood was surrounding her body._

_"Oh god," he whispered. "Oh god, Amneris!" He scrambled madly to get to her side, hampered by his lack of an arm and the immense pain still wracking his body._

_When he finally made it to her side, the urge to vomit finally became too much for him too take. While emptying the contents of his stomach, he caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye. A twitch, hardly noticeable, from the foot of his mother's grave._

_His head shot up and he looked hopefully toward it. For the second time that night, purple eyes met his gaze firmly. A mass of flesh and bone and blood spilled over the raised edges of the circle and Andrew quickly turned his head away and retched yet again._

_He would've continued to puke for hours on end if his ears hadn't picked up a slight whimpering sound. Amneris! She was alive! He scrambled back to her side and stared down at her pale and red-streaked flesh._

_Her skin was pale and her eyes closed. Her lips were parted and the faintest of breath was trickling from them. Her chest was a mass of shredded and torn flesh, oozing blood and organ but by some miracle, there was still life within her._

_"D-don't worry, Nari," he whispered, stroking her matted and blood-caked hair. "I'll save you, I won't let you die."_

_Raising a finger, he traced a transmutation circle on the ground. He had no idea what it would do, it had just come to his mind. He slammed his hand down on it and the world turned white._

_When he opened his eyes, he and Amneris were no longer in the tent. He wasn't certain they were even in Amestris anymore. Directly in front of them, was a large, dark, and over-all highly foreboding door. He glanced around, but there was nothing else to see. Everything else was a pure white, nothing more or less than absolutely nothing._

_"What do you seek by coming here?" a voice said, and though Andrew could hear no one talking, he understood._

_"Help her!" he shouted. "My sister! Heal her! Save her!"_

_The following pause was so drawn out, Andrew feared whoever it was had left and his sister would die here._

_"What do you offer in return?" the voice finally asked._

_"Anything!" Andrew yelled. "Anything you want!"_

"That wasn't very smart. Saying 'anything' like that."

"Nothing we did that night was smart, Amneris."

_"Anything? Alright then." The voice said, and this time it held a hint of cruel mocking and childish glee, the most unusual combination._

_Before Andrew could say another word, the doors before him opened and black, smiling tentacles shot out and pulled him in. The last thing he saw before the doors closed behind him was his sister's chocolate eyes, open the smallest fraction of an inch and staring right into his own as the tentacles wrapped around her injured form._

_Andrew landed on ground outside the tent, images still flashing across his brain, too fast to comprehend, and pain shooting throughout his body from his stump of an arm and leg. He felt more than heard, his sister stir beside him, fully healed and utterly terrified._

_"Andrew!" she screamed._

"I remember it from here," Amneris said.

_"Andrew!" she screamed. The sight of her brother lying, bleeding on the ground, with only one arm and one leg, was another on the long list of images she'd forever have burned on the back of her eyelids._

_She quickly pushed the vague and blurry images crowding her mind to the side and dropped to her knees beside him, gently rolled him over onto his back. He opened his eyes and smiled up at her weakly._

_"H-hey, sis," he murmured, eyes dropping back closed._

_"Hey! Hey! No! No, don't close your eyes!" she said, panic finally setting in. She quickly pulled off her over shirt and began ripping it into shreds, dressing his wound the best she could._

_After several heart stopping moments, Andrew finally opened his eyes and looked up at her. "Do you smell smoke?" he asked._

* * *

**A/N: R&R.**


	4. Chapter III

**Summary:** While at Pinako and Winry's house in Resembool, the Elric brothers meet a twin boy and girl looking for an auto-mail technician. The boy seems mostly unfazed by the loss of his leg and arm, but it's obvious the girl is filled with nothing by grief and guilt. Ed comes to find he has much in common with this guilt-stricken girl. Will he be able to help mend her wounds, and maybe heal a few of his own along the way? Or will the trail of pain and loss in both their pasts continue?

**Timeline:** This takes place during the anime episode _House of the Waiting Family_.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of its characters. I only own the Dresdens and any other OC's you might see.

* * *

**Losses Never Great Enough**

By Triple 'Eh'

* * *

**Chapter Three: Of Explaining and Remembering Part III**

_No matter how she tried, Amneris couldn't move. She was rooted to the spot, forced to watch as the only home she'd ever know burned to the ground right before her very eyes with her brother and baby niece inside. It was a slap from Andrew that brought her out of her trance and she quickly looked around for something to put the raging fire out with. __For all that it had been storming not an hour ago, nowhere could she find a large source of water to transmute. Finally, after running desperately around the burning building, she found that the ditch in front of their house was filled with fresh rainwater. She dashed over to it._

_She wasn't even thinking when she did it. She was so panic, worried about her remaining family, that she was reacting purely on instinct. Not until later, would she even realize she had done it. Slapping in her hands together, she clapped once, and slammed the down onto the ground near the ditch. The ground shook and the water surged upward, raining down on the small cottage, stifling the flames._

_Slowly, the fire died down. Amneris stared, disbelievingly, at the blackened remains of her home. Without even thinking, she bolted toward the burned structure. She ran through what was left of the door and through the foyer, toward the crumbling stairs. Nearly falling several times, she made her way up the dilapidated steps and through the charred hallway. _

_"Adam!" she screamed. "Adam! Where are you?" _

_She got no response. She hadn't been expecting one. In the depths of her heart, she already knew that she would never get a response from her older brother ever again. _

_"Adam?" she questioned weakly. The house was still full of smoke and her lungs were beginning to burn. She coughed as she rounded the corner and came upon the door to her niece's nursery._

_Slowly, oh so slowly, she reached out a hand and gently pushed the nursery door open. A dull thump sounded throughout the silent house and bile rose to the back of Amneris's throat as she thought about what could be blocking the door. Giving the door a gently shove, she moved whatever it was out of the way and poked her head in the room. _

_She screamed, a blood-curling, heart-wrenching scream of pure agony as she saw the body of her brother lying on the ground. That was what had been blocking the door. He wasn't burned; the fire hadn't made it to this part of the house. But the smoke had, and he had died of smoke inhalation._

_As her scream petered off, she carefully stepped over Adam's body and gingerly made her way to the bassinet in the corner. Lying in the bassinet, eyes closed and unmoving, was her baby niece Shelly. She looked so calm and peaceful. _

_'She could be asleep?' Amneris half-asked herself. It was too much to hope for, but nevertheless, she reached out and placed her fingers on the girl's tiny neck. _

_No pulse. She was dead. Shelly Dawn Dresden had been born on December 20__th__, 1914 and had died December 23__rd__ of smoke inhalation. She had lived three days before being cruelly taken from this world. _

_And it was all Amneris's fault. _

"We spent the next day in the local clinic, being treated for our various wounds while a close family friend took care of the funeral arrangements. Shelly and Adam were…were buried with our mom and dad and Marseille behind the remains of our house. Not much survived the fire but that didn't matter. We weren't staying in Exodem anyway."

_It was the middle of the night. Amneris had been sitting, with her back to the big oak tree, staring at the five graves, since before noon. She hadn't moved, she hadn't eaten, she hadn't done anything but think. Her thoughts, however, were interrupted at around midnight by a repetitive 'clunk, clunk, clunk' sound. _

_Turning her head slowly, she watched as her brother made his way toward her, a metal crutch in his right hand. He hopped over to her and dropped down beside her. "Amneris?" he questioned._

"_Hmm?" she responded. _

"_Are you okay?"_

"_Are you?"_

"_No."_

"_There you go."_

_And they said nothing more for what seemed like hours._

"_Amneris?" Andrew finally asked. "What do we do now?"_

"_I don't know," she sighed. "How the hell should I know? Why do I always have to know these things? Why don't _you_ figure out what we should do next, because I'm fresh out of 'good' ideas," she said, scornfully. _

_Andrew was silent. He knew his sister didn't mean her harsh words. Amneris, for her part, wanted nothing more than to be left alone to wallow. But she knew her brother needed her. He had always looked to her in times of great turmoil and he was looking to her now. _

_Slowly, oh so slowly, she stood and made her way over to the blacken ruins of the only home they'd ever had. She reached in her pocket and pulled out the match she had been fingering all day. She struck it against the edge of the box and tossed it onto the pile of rubble. The gasoline she had poured over everything yesterday in her rage after being released from the local clinic caught alight quickly, and soon what was left of their childhood memories went up in smoke. _

"_We move on," she said over her shoulder as she watched the flames rise higher and higher in the night sky. "We keep going and we don't look back."_

_And she turned her back on the burning building and walked away, leaving her brother to sit by the oak and watch the house burn. She walked down the road and into the main part of town. Everyone was in bed and all was silent. When she was sure her brother wasn't following her, she finally let the tears that had been building for the last two days fall. _

_She collapsed in a crumbled heap on a bench beside the little water fountain in the main square and she sobbed. She buried her head in her knees and she let all out. It had been the hardest thing she had ever had to do: dropping that match. But she had done it; she had been strong because her brother needed her to be. But she wasn't strong and she knew it. It was all acting and she didn't know if she was good enough to keep the show going. _

_So wrapped up in her misery, she didn't hear the telltale 'clunk, clunk' of her brother making his way down the main street and to her side. She didn't notice him until he placed a hand on her shoulder and sat down on her left._

_"You don't have to be strong for me, Nari." She glanced up at the childhood name he hadn't used since they were ten. "You don't have to hid your pain. You've always been strong for me sis; let me be strong for you now." He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and drew her into him. She buried her head in his chest and cried like she hadn't cried in a very long time. _

* * *

_She woke up lying on an unfamiliar bed with no recollection of how she'd gotten there. She knew she must have fallen asleep in the square last night, but how the hell had Andrew gotten her here? _

_There was a knock on the door and the local doctor's wife, Hayley Shafer entered. That was when Amneris realized she was at Dr. Shafer's house. _

"_Oh, you're awake," Hayley said. "That's good. Here I brought you some breakfast. You must've been awfully tired. I found you and your brother asleep in the square early this morning. Martin helped me get you two here." _

_She sat up slowly as Hayley set the tray she was carrying down on the bedside table and took a seat on the bed beside her. Hayley was a lovely lady, shiny graying hair pulled back into a harsh yet fitting bun, gorgeous blue eyes peering out from behind silver glasses. She had a personality to fit her grandmotherly appearance. She knew everyone in town and most referred to her as the grandmother or Gram, because she and her husband had been in this town since before most of the people who lived here now were even born. _

"_How are you, deary?" she asked, placing a hand on Amneris's knee. Hayley had been like a second mother to Adam, Andrew, and her after the...accident. Amneris trusted her and she loved her dearly. _

"_I don't know, Grammy," she said, reverting back to her childhood name for the old woman like she always did when she was said and Hayley was there, "I don't know." She shook her head. She didn't want to talk about this. "Where Andrew?" she asked, instead. _

_Hayley sighed. "He's downstairs," she said, standing up. "He's packing up some clothes and things for you two. Where are you going?"_

_That was a good question. What did Andrew have in mind? "I'm not sure," she said. _

"_Well, your brother seems to think your going somewhere. Finish your breakfast and get washed up. There are some clothes about your size in that dresser there. Come downstairs when your done and you ask him yourself." With that Hayley walked out, closing the door behind her. _

_Amneris sighed and threw a glance toward the food on the table. She grimaced and picked up the tray, walking toward the window. She quietly opened it and dumped the food out into the front yard. The Shafers' dog would eat it; she wasn't hungry. In fact, she felt about sick to her stomach. She couldn't leave the food sitting there; Hayley would find it and, being the wife of a doctor, pester her about why she had no appetite, and was she sick, and 'here let me get you some medicine'. There was no medicine that could help her though; this was one illness that she'd have to deal with on her own. They didn't make a medicine to cure guilt._

_After taking a shower and changing her two days old bloodstained clothes, Amneris made her way down the stairs and into the Shafers living room, where Andrew was packing up two rucksacks on the couch one handed. Silently, she sat down beside him and began to pack folded clothes into the light pink bag. His was light blue; that was Hayley for you. _

_Twenty minutes later, Andrew finally spoke. "We're going to Resembool," he said. "Dr. Shafer's already agreed to drive us to town. I've heard that there's a pretty spectacular auto-mail mechanic there named Winry Rockbell."_

"_Auto-mail?" Amneris asked. She'd heard about that, it was supposedly very painful. "Are you sure—"_

_"Yes," Andrew said firmly. And that was the end of that conversation._

_"Uh, when, um, when do we leave?" It felt odd not being the one making the decisions; odd, but surprisingly relieving. _

_"Tonight, when Dr. Shafer gets back from work." _

_The Dresden twins pilled into the back of the car and Dr. Shafer closed the door. They rode in silence for the fifteen-minute journey to the outskirts of Resembool. "Now, you kids, don't be strangers," Dr. Shafer said as the two climbed from the car. Amneris wrapped her arm around her brother's waists and picked up the rucksacks with the other hand as he put his arm around her shoulder. _

_"We won't," Andrew said. "Thank you, Dr." _

_"Not a problem, Andrew, not a problem."_

_Amneris was silent. She had spent the car ride thinking and had come to a conclusion. She was poison. Everyone she loved either got killed or injured because of her. She was a poison, infecting everything that came near her. The idea made her want to run away and hole herself up in a cave, far away from the human population. She wondered how long it would be before Andrew left her too. _

_As the two made their was up the road toward the Rockbell's home, the weight of everything that had happened crashed down on Amneris again and she felt that she would snap under the pressure. _

"And that's…that's pretty much how we got here," Amneris said, wiping at the tear that had begun to flow down her cheeks sometime during her tragic tale.

Ed swallowed the bile that had risen to the back of his throat at the thought of how much this girl had gone through. He suddenly felt very selfish. He realized that other people went through things much worse than what he and Al had experienced.

"Oh god," Winry whispered. "Oh, god, I'm so sorry." Tears were trickling down her cheeks as well. She reached out and gently grasped Amneris's hand. "I'm so sorry, Amneris."

"It's late," Pinako said, when the tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife. "I think we should all get some rest. Winry, why don't you help Mr. Dresden to the spare room while I get Miss Dresden here something to calm her nerves."

"Alright," Winry said. As Winry wrapped an arm around Andrew's waist and the two hobbled off, Pinako gripped Amneris's arm and pulled her to the kitchen.

"Come on, girl, I know just what you need."

Amneris's eyes widened at the surprising strength of the little old woman and she stumbled a bit, but they eventually made it into the kitchen. Pinako handed her a glass of water and a pill, and Amneris swallowed it without bothering to ask what it was. When she made her way up to the spare room, she was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

* * *

Amneris quietly slipped her feet off the bed and onto the floor. She tiptoed across the hardwood, careful not to wake Andrew, who was asleep in the twin bed across the room, and opened the door. She prayed that it wouldn't creak. It didn't. 

Something had awakened her. She didn't know what it was but she planned on finding out. She was generally a hard sleeper and was difficult to awaken. However, it hadn't really been a noise so much as a feeling that drew her out of her deep slumber. And that only made her all the more curious.

She made her was silently down the hallway. She stopped at the end of the hallway; she could hear voices around the corner.

"So, listen, Al." That was Edward, Amneris realized. It must be there room around the corner. She pressed herself closer to the wall and edged a little closer, still hidden from view around the corner. "There's this thing see, something I've been meaning to tell you for a long time now. But I've been kinda scared I guess, of what your reaction would be."

"What?" That was Alphonse.

"Dammit, it's just…" For some reason, Amneris didn't like hearing the paining and vulnerability in Ed's voice. She imagined he probably didn't let many people see him like that, and she felt kinda bad for listening in.

"Tell me!" Al sounded desperate. She peeked her head around the corner and her eyes widened dramatically. She jerked her head back violently.

No. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be. But there was no mistaking that hulking form. A loud noise echoed and Amneris knew that Major Alex Louis Armstrong had just burst into the Elrics room. "Gentlemen!" she heard his booming voice, but she was already taking off back toward her room.

'Yikes,' she thought when she had finally made it back to her bed and bolted the door. 'What's he doing here? No, this is not good. I don't want anyone to know. I don't want Ed to know. He's a State Alchemist; he can't know. Oh, my simple plans been shot to hell.'

She was going to have to spend the rest of the night thinking of a way to avoid Major Armstrong tomorrow until he and the Elrics left. If he didn't see her, he couldn't talk her out of what she was going to do or inform someone who could. She had made up her mind; she was going to do it and she didn't want anyone convincing her otherwise. 'Crap,' she thought, before lying down and falling back asleep, dreams filled with pink sparkles and bone crushing muscles.

* * *

A/N: R & R. 


End file.
